September 23rd, 2004 issue #0338

Register
Deadline: 5pm Monday, October 4
Where: Almost anywhere there's a crowd, there will be someone registering voters. By mail is also an option. More traditional spots are the registrars' offices (Charlottesville in the City Hall Annex, Albemarle at the DMV on Pantops).
What to bring: No identification is necessary, but you do need to provide your full legal name, current address, Social Security number, and where you were last registered to vote.

Jackie Harris: Albemarle County Registrar
Harris is seeing an influx of registrations, but not any more than she expects during a presidential election. "This seems about right," she says.
"Every presidential election brings out someone 70 years old who's never voted before and is inspired to vote," Albemarle's registrar says.
Harris has noted the proliferation of voter drives, especially among churches.

PHOTOS BY LINCOLN ROSS BARBOUR
If it seems like every time you turn around there's a table with someone eager to register voters, you're not imagining things.
"I got seven calls today from groups wanting to do voter registration," says Sheri Iachetta, Charlottesville registrar. "That's unheard of. We're running out of forms."

VERM is on the lips of every voting activist in town. That's Voter Education Registration and Mobilization, a coalition of more than a dozen organizations and individuals committed to getting citizens to the polls, no matter what it takes.
Anne Brown, executive director of the Public Housing Residents Association, credits housing activist Joy Johnson with bringing the idea of VERM to the city from a National Low-Income Housing Coalition conference where voter education was a hot topic.